juggernaut
Active Member
- Region
- Australia
Continuing on from my previous first events this year (see previous posts), my same friend and I entered the Cape to Cape with is a 4 day stage XCM event. This is circa 190klm's and 2,500m climbing over 4 days. The courses comprised of a series of technical single track trails joined by fire trail gravel roads. I believe there were circa 400+ riders in the event. These included the national/state and international elite riders (around 50 riders).
Again it was a last minute decision and so all I did was replace my brake pads, fit the next size up suspension coil (525lb), dial in my sag, fit Wolf Tooth Waveform pedals (after the Wellgo's got bent from the previous event in a series of rock strikes) and fit the new Gen 2 Schwalbe Albert Gravity Pro casing tyres in soft compound.
Day 1.
The elites started first, followed by the next fasted seeded riders and so on. The ebike's started last and would be seeded in the subsequent days based on their day 1 finish time.
Given my very limited single track trail riding experience, I still had serious my doubts about my capabilities, especially after the couple of off's I had in the last event. This time I was going to be more cautious as I had to last the 4 day event. However, when the horn sounds I can't help myself.
I found the technical single track challenging especially at ebike speeds. Coupled with the fact we had to pass every competitor that started in front of us to improve our seeding for the next day. On one of sandy steep sandy climbs the trail was blocked by the non-ebikes and I found myself pushing the Beast up the sandy climb which was the biggest challenge of the day!!
The overall pace was fast and furious and my Garmin showed my peak speed was just shy of 63 km/hr. I finished 4th in the ebike's for the day - 29 seconds faster and I would have been 2nd. I was fairly pleased with my day 1 result, with body and bike in tact fr day 2! My time outright (including the elites) would have placed me 26th.
Day 2.
Day 2 was back in the area of the 90km gravel race i did back in May. The course started with 20km's of very fast gravel fire/logging roads to space the riders out before hitting the technical trails and then finishing with gravel roads/trails back to the start finish.
Due to my time from day 1, I was elevated to the blue category riders which started 2 or 3 mins behind the elites.
All was going well and on the long hilly gravel climbs I started to catch and overtake the tail end of the elites - although they were generally faster downhill. At the second timing marker at around the 18 klm mark of the race I was second in the ebike category. Once we hit the downhill and flat technical sigle track trails I was swamped by the elites and the better ebikers and let them through so as to not hold them up. However on the technical climbs i was being held up and was constantly on and off the pedals by the elites but preferred to stay behind them, as they would only be faster than me in the flat and downhill sections.
It was during this part of the track the my rear hub blew and I lost all drive. My race was over as there was no way I could complete the day 2 stage race, nor as it turned out the rest of the event. It was a big disappointment, but thats racing I guess!
It was another great personal challenge, whilst it lasted. The technical single track was certainly chalenging, and this is one area I really need to improve with practice. Nevertheless I was reasonably please with my progress up to the hub letting go.
My friend with his Amflow finished the 4 day event ebike category in 7th - so well done him!
Again it was a last minute decision and so all I did was replace my brake pads, fit the next size up suspension coil (525lb), dial in my sag, fit Wolf Tooth Waveform pedals (after the Wellgo's got bent from the previous event in a series of rock strikes) and fit the new Gen 2 Schwalbe Albert Gravity Pro casing tyres in soft compound.
Day 1.
The elites started first, followed by the next fasted seeded riders and so on. The ebike's started last and would be seeded in the subsequent days based on their day 1 finish time.
Given my very limited single track trail riding experience, I still had serious my doubts about my capabilities, especially after the couple of off's I had in the last event. This time I was going to be more cautious as I had to last the 4 day event. However, when the horn sounds I can't help myself.
I found the technical single track challenging especially at ebike speeds. Coupled with the fact we had to pass every competitor that started in front of us to improve our seeding for the next day. On one of sandy steep sandy climbs the trail was blocked by the non-ebikes and I found myself pushing the Beast up the sandy climb which was the biggest challenge of the day!!
The overall pace was fast and furious and my Garmin showed my peak speed was just shy of 63 km/hr. I finished 4th in the ebike's for the day - 29 seconds faster and I would have been 2nd. I was fairly pleased with my day 1 result, with body and bike in tact fr day 2! My time outright (including the elites) would have placed me 26th.
Day 2.
Day 2 was back in the area of the 90km gravel race i did back in May. The course started with 20km's of very fast gravel fire/logging roads to space the riders out before hitting the technical trails and then finishing with gravel roads/trails back to the start finish.
Due to my time from day 1, I was elevated to the blue category riders which started 2 or 3 mins behind the elites.
All was going well and on the long hilly gravel climbs I started to catch and overtake the tail end of the elites - although they were generally faster downhill. At the second timing marker at around the 18 klm mark of the race I was second in the ebike category. Once we hit the downhill and flat technical sigle track trails I was swamped by the elites and the better ebikers and let them through so as to not hold them up. However on the technical climbs i was being held up and was constantly on and off the pedals by the elites but preferred to stay behind them, as they would only be faster than me in the flat and downhill sections.
It was during this part of the track the my rear hub blew and I lost all drive. My race was over as there was no way I could complete the day 2 stage race, nor as it turned out the rest of the event. It was a big disappointment, but thats racing I guess!
It was another great personal challenge, whilst it lasted. The technical single track was certainly chalenging, and this is one area I really need to improve with practice. Nevertheless I was reasonably please with my progress up to the hub letting go.
My friend with his Amflow finished the 4 day event ebike category in 7th - so well done him!
